


House of Church

by Velgamidragon



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Canon Compliant, Church has a thing for States, Established Relationship, F/M, First Time Parents, Gen, Mentioned Orphanage, Military Families, Newborn Children, before Allison dies, before Church gets his doctorate, before everything goes to shit, carwash siblings, mostly T for swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-30 11:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3935854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Velgamidragon/pseuds/Velgamidragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Early on in her pregnancy, Allison was certain the developing baby was a boy and Leonard swore up and down it was a girl. They settled the argument by agreeing that whoever was right got to give the kid whatever name they so chose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Carolina

**Author's Note:**

> This was the first RvB fic I ever wrote and posted (it's been up on FF.net since the beginning of April under the same name), and I wanted to post it here too because why not?
> 
> Carwash siblings is my most favorite RvB headcanon, so this is basically a story of how they got their names. Also, since we have no idea how old they are, I totally made up their birth years, but they both occur before the year 2525, which is when the Human-Covenant War starts. That means, historically-speaking, the Insurrection is still going strong and occupying a good portion of the UNSC's time and the Spartan-II program is still in its early stages. In 2516, the future Spartan-IIs are still living with their families, and it won't be until the following year that they're kidnapped and begin their training.

**Year 2516**

“It’s a girl.”

Leonard could hardly believe his eyes – he silently mouthed the words ‘son of a bitch’ as he watched the doctors clean up the screaming infant – at how _tiny_ she was! Her skin was pink and her eyes were screwed shut, so he couldn’t see the blue eyes that he knew all babies had (he wondered what color she would end up with), but the baby, his daughter – _his daughter!_ – appeared to have auburn-colored hair, though it was hard to tell because her head was still wet. He briefly and pointlessly wondered if Allison had any redheads in her family, not that they would ever know given that she was raised in a maximum security orphanage.

At the thought of his wife, Leonard turned his attention completely on her and watched her intently. Her eyes were closed and her long, straight blond hair was soaked with sweat, but her breathing was even and controlled like she was just going through one of her usual military training exercises and Leonard smiled as he closed his hand over hers. Of course his Allison could handle it. If anyone didn’t know Allison, they wouldn’t believe that she’d just spent the past few hours of labor violently swearing that she would tear off his dick and curbstomp his balls for the hell that was birthing a baby. If Leonard didn’t know her so well, he’d have believed she was completely fucking serious. Seeing her so calm so soon afterward was proof for Leonard that she’d only been _half_ serious about her threats. Lucky him.

Leonard leaned forward and pressed his forehead to the side of his wife’s head and squeezed her hand gently. “You did good, sweetheart. You did good,” Leonard whispered and then grinned as he glanced over at the newly wrapped bundle of blankets. “But I was right. The baby’s a girl.”

Allison gave a heavy sigh and Leonard pulled back to watch her open her tired blue-gray eyes and focus on their daughter. She took her from the doctors when their baby was offered to her and drew her to her breast without a word, but the tenderest of expressions he had _ever_ seen on her beautiful face.

Nobody could have guessed that the very first words the new mother would utter in the presence of their newborn would be “Mother fucker…” Even Leonard startled at that, but her expression was still warm and her tone still gentle and he understood a little bit. He and Allison of all people could create something as beautiful and precious as this? Mother fucker indeed.

“Well, it looks like you have the right to name her, Leonard,” Allison said with a resigned sigh. “Just don’t pick something stupid or I _will_ have to kick your ass for it.”

“No pressure,” Leonard muttered sarcastically, but pressed a kiss to his wife’s temple. He’d had a name picked out ever since they’d agreed to their little bet. “I want to name her Carolina.”

“Carolina? That’s actually a decent name, and slightly different from…” she trailed off and her brow furrowed and he gulped as she turned her intense blue-gray eyes on him. “Are you picking Carolina because it’s a variant of Caroline or because it’s the name of two of the states?” she asked.

“… Which one of those answers is less likely to get me pummeled or killed?”

“Leonard!”

“I plead the fifth?”

“You want to name her after the state, don’t you?” Allison groaned as she leaned back against the propped-up mattress, their daughter completely undisturbed by her mother’s movements.

Now that he seemed to be in the clear, Leonard breathed a silent sigh of relief. “I just wanted to continue a family tradition, Tex,” he explained quietly and he saw her soften as soon as he called her by the nickname that she’d treated as a full name for far longer than he’d known her true name was Allison, let alone been allowed to call her that. “And I did my research. I could have picked any of the other forty-eight states or the District of Columbia, but I chose one that at least has several variations. It won’t be as obvious that she’s named after a state as opposed to if I had picked Florida or Alabama.”

“What about Virginia or Georgia?” Allison pointed out.

Leonard made a bitter face and it got a smirk out of his nursing wife. “Get off my back, woman! I just like Carolina as a name better, that’s all!”

Allison gave a low, soft laugh and squeezed his hand with the one she’d just freed up after having adjusted her arms holding their daughter. It was both impressive and scary that their baby was so tiny that Allison could hold her entire body while also supporting her head with only _one_ arm.

“As long as you’re being honest with yourself about why you really want the name, dear, but alright, I concede. Heaven knows that you could have picked something _much_ worse and more abnormal as a name for our daughter.”

Leonard bristled slightly. “Hey, my naming choices are fine. You just can’t appreciate their brilliance.”

“What the hell is _‘brilliant’_ about naming your dog in middle school Sir. Runaround?!” Allison spluttered.

“Well at least _I_ didn’t name my black cat _Soot_ , because _that’s_ so damn original!”

“At least having a common name means not getting picked on in school, _Leonard!_ ”

“And that’s exactly why I picked Carolina; because it’s _normal!_ ”

“Jesus fuck, we’re _agreeing_ with each other!” Allison exclaimed suddenly.

Her outburst caused Leonard to instantly frown in confusion. “You’re right. What were we even _arguing_ about?”

“Something about names,” Allison supplied helpfully and looked down at their daughter who, remarkably, was _still_ nursing from her mother’s breast and hadn’t once looked up, even when both of them had started yelling. “Carolina…” she whispered and the soft smile was back on her face once more. “Carolina, my Carolina, either Mommy and Daddy are going to have to stop yelling so much, or you’re just going to have to get used to it. The latter will probably be easier, but we’ll try and do better, sweetie.”

Leonard pondered that for a moment as he moved next to Allison again to stare down at his red-headed daughter from above and decided she was probably right. Their entire relationship was frequently influenced by their quick (and sometimes violent) tempers and even their first meeting was a shouting match. But Allison was right. They weren’t just a young married couple anymore. They were parents with a baby, another human being that they were responsible for, for making sure they were able adults who could handle anything life threw at them. Having that kind of weight placed upon his shoulders, it scared him. It scared him badly. But… Leonard drew closer to Allison, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and pressing her against his side as if he could draw strength from the simple contact. In a sense, he was. He wasn’t strong enough to raise a kid alone, and he knew it, but Allison had enough inner strength for the both of them and he knew that as long as Allison remained by his side – that he had a partner to stand with and wasn’t shouldering the burden alone – he could help raise another human being, their daughter, Carolina Church.

“Leonard?” Allison called softly.

“Hm?” he hummed in question.

“Did we ever decide who was going to pick her middle name?”

Leonard paused and his eyes rolled up to the ceiling as he picked through his brain trying to remember if they had or not. Once finished, he reached the conclusion that they had _not_ and there’s really only one thing left to say to that. “…Fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chex (Church/Tex) in _any_ form is my ultimate OTP for this show, so I got the chance to write my OTP as well as one of my headcanons. That always makes me happy when I can do that. Obviously, we don't really know that much about what Allison and Leonard were like before she died, but I imagine they were pretty darn similar to Church and Tex, so I tried to include elements of that while still giving them a stable relationship, because goddamn, they do love each other.


	2. Washington

**Year 2520**

Leonard’s green eyes were wide with shock and his trembling hands were gripping the desk and his datapad so tightly his knuckles were white. “…What? Are you sure?”

It was Allison on the screen of his datapad that he was talking to and she actually gave an irritated snarl. _“ **Yes!** I’m fucking **sure** , you goddamn **moron!** I’ve already had **one** kid! I’m pretty fucking certain I know what going into fucking **labor** feels like!”_

Thiscouldn’tbehappening.Thiscouln’tbehappening.Thiscouldn’tbehappening! “But the doctors said you weren’t due for another month!” Leonard protested.

_“Yeah? Well shit out of luck asshole, because this kid is coming **now** , so you better find a way to get your ass up here as fast as possible if you wanna see him!”_

Ever since Allison had found out she was pregnant again, she had stubbornly insisted on referring to the new child as a boy, even though they had once again refused to find out until the baby was born. He’d given up trying to convince her otherwise.

Despite Leonard’s increasing panic and unraveling state of mind, he was grounded enough to remember to ask, “What are you gonna do about Carolina? Is she okay?”

Some of the tension seemed to leave Allison at the mention of their red-haired, green-eyed (same as his) daughter and she said, _“Carolina’s fine. I asked some of the other army parents around the base here to watch over her while I’m in labor. They’ll bring her to me once the baby’s born.”_ More tension drained out of her face and Leonard’s heart melted in his chest at the soft, plaintive look his wife was giving him through the screen. _“I know Washington is rather far from Texas, and that you were hoping to use the time while I was gone keeping busy at training bases, to prepare for presenting your thesis on Cognitive Impression Modeling host segregation at the end of the week for your doctorate, but I really want you here. Please come as soon as you can. Carolina and I both miss you.”_

_God_ , how he missed the both of them too. Leonard understood how important working in the military was to Allison, but that meant he hardly ever got to see her – hell, the longest durations of shore leave she’d ever had were because of her two pregnancies – and especially with the Insurrection’s activities becoming more and more violent with each passing year, there was always the fear that one day, she might not come back home. Allison hadn’t even finished her request for him to fly out to Washington to be with her, and he’d already decided what he would do.

“I’ll be there, Tex,” Leonard promised, “You and Carolina and Washington just sit tight for a little while longer until I can make it.”

The plaintive look on Allison’s face immediately disappeared and she erupted with outrage, _“ **Oh** , no you don’t! We are **not** naming this one **Washington** , even on the **impossible** chance that it **is** a girl!”_

Leonard smirked at her reaction and said, “Of course, dear. I’ll see you again.”

Allison gave him a totally undeserved scowl then stuck her tongue out at him and shut off her connection to his datapad, but not before she flashed him a quick, happy smile. As soon as the connection ended, Leonard knew he wouldn’t be able to find any commercial transportation that could arrive in Washington quick enough for his wife, so he immediately started calling some of his own higher ranking contacts in the military. While he was unable to serve in the military the way his wife could on account of his asthma, he was quickly becoming one of the foremost experts in the field of AI and robotics and was developing quite a contact group among the spooks of ONI Section III. Perhaps he could call in a few favors to make this happen, especially since he knew some of the upper echelons were quite interested in his thesis presentation later in the week and they would want to see that happen on time. In this way, Leonard was not like his wife. His thesis was important, yes, but not as important to him as his wife and children. They would always come first for him.

()()()()()

Even with the favors he’d called in, he was _just_ a minute too late to see his second child born. He’d met up with Carolina with one of the other army moms halfway to the birthing room, and as soon as his four-year-old little firecracker had noticed him, she tore away from the woman and came barreling down the hallway screaming ‘Daddyyyyyyy!’ at the top of her lungs before making an excellent and successful flying leap at his neck from which she hung like a giant, heavy necklace. He’d quickly reassured her that yes, they were going to see Mommy and her new sibling and he moved her from his neck to sitting on top of his shoulders as they continued their quick trek down the hallway.When they reached the correct room number, Leonard knocked first, more because he didn’t want to startle anyone or end up unexpectedly conked in the head, and the door opened to reveal either a doctor or a nurse staring up at him.

“Are you Mr. Church?” the woman asked and Leonard nodded. The woman stepped back into the room as Leonard lifted Carolina over his head and set her back down on the floor. Carolina wasted no time in slipping through the tiny opening and heading off to the left where presumably her mother lay on a bed. “Congratulations sir,” the doctor – Leonard decided – said as he entered the room. “You just missed the delivery, but your wife is fine and you have a healthy baby boy.”

Leonard barely heard the woman’s words as his eyes instantly fell upon Allison. She was sitting up and nursing their son – holy shit, Allison was actually right the whole time – while Carolina watched her new baby brother with avid fascination from her mother’s right side. Allison looked a little less tired this time around than when she had Carolina, but she looked up and that same soft smile that never existed before Carolina’s birth, the one he’d come to identify as her maternal smile, actually deepened and she stretched her hand out to him. Leonard made his way over to Allison’s left side, opposite his daughter, and he placed a chaste kiss on the back of her hand as soon as he caught it.

“I came as soon as I could,” he explained apologetically. “I’m just sorry I couldn’t be here any sooner.”

Allison gave a small laugh and shook her head gently. “No, you did good, sweetheart. You did good. But-!” her maternal smile quickly transformed into a mischievous grin and Leonard couldn’t help but feel this sense of déjà vu at her next words, “ _I_ was _right_. The baby’s a boy.”

Allison was so damn smug and proud of herself that despite her ribbing him by throwing his own words back at him from four years ago, Leonard couldn’t help but smile back, because despite their continued rivalry over the sex of the baby, he really wanted her to name this one, to see what name his beloved Allison would pick. The fact the baby was a boy as per their original agreement just made this moment even more of a triumph for her, especially since she’d been crowing for a son ever since she tested pregnancy positive.

Leonard sidled over right up next to her to finally get a good look at their son. Even with his head still being a little damp, Leonard could definitely see that the little hair he had was much lighter in color than his sister’s had been, and his would probably be a fair blond like Allison's once it dried completely. Unlike his sister, the boy also kept turning away from his mother’s full breast to look around at things – things he probably couldn’t even see as anything more coherent than a big fuzzy blur – before returning to the milk (their newborn son seemed at least a touch more curious than Carolina had been at literally the same age), and his eyes were the normal baby blue, but slightly more grayish where Carolina’s had been bright, electric blue before they’d turned green. Leonard suddenly desperately hoped that their son’s eyes would become more blue-gray like Allison’s. He already seemed to take after her quite strongly, and Leonard didn’t mind that at all.

Despite his own happiness for Allison that she could have this moment, Leonard still had a role to play as the gracious loser, so he gave a big dramatic sigh and said, “Well, it looks like you have the right to name him, Tex. I’d try and threaten you like you did me with Carolina if you give him a stupid name, but that wouldn’t end well for me in any way, so choose away.”

This time, Allison gave a full-out laugh and an enthusiastic ‘damn right!’ that startled their son momentarily. She quickly calmed down and spoke soothing nonsense words that didn’t mean anything yet and Leonard found it absolutely adorable when hyper, rambunctious Carolina very slowly reached over with one hand and tried to gently pet her baby brother’s head with a kind of awed reverence.

With the newborn settled back to nursing, Allison gave a happy sigh, casually glanced up at him, and said, “I want to name him David.”

Leonard tried really hard not to frown at all, even with skepticism - it was such a plain name - and he felt he succeeded pretty well when he asked, “Why that name?”

Allison turned her head away to stare up at the ceiling. “It’s a name that I’m fond of. On top of the fact that it’s short and sweet and normal with no weird spelling variations, I knew a David once. When I was still… back at the orphanage…”

Leonard squeezed her hand reassuringly; he knew how hard it was for her to think about that place.

“There was one adult there that was huge and broad, but very gentle and sweet like a big teddy bear that would always look out for us and his name was David. He made sure we didn’t starve, that we behaved, and would even settle arguments and differences before things got ugly. He was like everyone’s father, uncle, or big brother and he hardly ever raised his voice and never doled out any physical punishment. He never needed to.”

Allison gave a pained laugh, “We loved him so much that all he had to do was stare at you and shake his head in disappointment and you would feel like such a worthless shithead for the rest of the day. I don’t know what his role was, but he was only allowed to stay on for five years and we were all so damn upset when he had to leave, we were all a crying, blubbering mess. Honestly though, I’d still probably be an aggressive, bitchy little shit if it weren’t for him setting me straight and making me feel like I could make something of myself. Believe it or not, you helped a lot with that too, Leonard.”

Leonard was too damn embarrassed and blushing full on red to be able to make a coherent response to her praise – gratitude was so rare to hear from her, it was like rain in a parched desert. He managed to regain enough of his composure to say, “So you want to name our son, David, in honor of him?”

Allison nodded with a smile. “Um-hm. It’s one of the few names I cherish and remember fondly. It’ll suit our little David Church well enough.”

Leonard nodded and looked over at little Carolina who was still staring bug-eyed at her brother. “Carolina,” he said softly and his little girl perked up with a jolt like she’d been electrocuted. He gestured toward the blanket-wrapped newborn and said, “Carolina, this is your baby brother, David. He won’t be able to do a lot by himself for a long time, but will you help your mother and I with taking care of him? We have to make sure that he’s warm and safe and clean and doesn’t get hurt; can you help with that?”

Carolina instantly bobbed her head up and down and said eagerly, “Yes, Daddy! I’m a big girl! I’ll help as much as I can!”

Leonard smiled and reached over to ruffle his daughter’s hair. “There’s a good girl.” As he was returning to his original position, he noticed that David had fallen asleep and he turned to his wife. “May I…?”

He didn’t even have to complete his question. He’d done the exact same thing when Carolina had fallen asleep the first time too. Allison expertly guided her son into his father’s arms without waking him up. Leonard promptly sat on the edge of the bed staring down at his sleeping son with wonder and fascination at how much like his mother David already looked and how different, yet similar, he looked from Carolina who had moved around to the other side of the bed to watch her brother and was now sitting on the edge of it right next to him.

He knew life would continue on and there would be many long days and sleepless nights ahead of them, but right now, the world was calm and quiet. Just sitting there on the bed, with his daughter leaning on one arm and impatiently waiting for her chance to hold her baby brother, his son sleeping soundly curled up in his arms, and his wife reclining on the bed from his other side looking so proud and tired and content, Leonard could not think of many days before when he’d felt so happy in his life.

Maybe it was because of all that that Leonard dipped his head low over his son and half-whispered to him, “Welcome to the world, David. Today is your birthday.”

"Soo, Leonard, did we think of a middle name for _this_ one this time?" Allison asked in a teasing tone.

Leonard drew himself up proudly, turned to look her straight in the eyes, and said, "Yes, in fact, I have."

Allison quirked an eyebrow at him. "Oh? And what might _that_ be?"

"Washingt-"

" _Fuck_ no!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seem to have this fascination with this couple where I want it to be adorable, but I also want to rip up hearts by reminding people of what happens _much_ later. It's a very conflicting feeling, and I **like** it.
> 
> Not sure if I conveyed it very well, but Allison strikes me as the kind of woman that would be bored as hell if she couldn't be active while pregnant, even far along (heck, my mom was still pretty darn active at 32 when she was pregnant with my youngest brother), and so to prevent herself from distracting her husband while he's trying to prepare his presentation on his thesis (this is his actual thesis as of season 10 episode 6), she goes all over the country to training bases and helps train new recruits (and Carolina comes because she both wants to spend more time with her mom and she takes after her in being a very active child, so she enjoys the trips, and it would be very distracting to Leonard at that particular time if his daughter was hanging around while he did academic stuff).
> 
> Speaking of Leonard; we have no idea what prevented him from being able to serve in the military, so I just picked asthma because that's no something that can be easily corrected and it would definitely be severely debilitating on the battlefield.
> 
> I also totally made up that adult person at the orphanage, but my goal with that was to basically provide a character that had a very important and influential impact on Allison, hence why she would be fond of the name (besides just liking it, because it _is_ a nice name) to want to use it for her son's name as well.


End file.
